Alliance Air Flight 7412

Infobox Airliner accident|name=Flight CD-7412
Date=July 17 2000
Type=Inflight Loss of Control
Site=Patna, Bihar, India
Fatalities=60 (55 on board)
Injuries=5
Aircraft Type=Boeing 737-2A8
Operator=Alliance Air

Flight 7412 departed Calcutta at 06:51, for a flight to Delhi, with stops at Patna and Lucknow. The crew had been cleared to land at runway 25 at Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Airport at Patna when the pilots requested a 360-degree orbit due to the flight being high on the approach. Permission was granted and a left turn was initiated. During the left turn, the aircraft stalled. The plane then grazed a few single-storied houses in a government residential housing estate crashed in a government residential colony behind Gardani Bagh Girls School at Aneeshabad, which is located about 2km southwest of the Patna Airport. [http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20000717-0 ASN Aircraft accident description Boeing 737-2A8 VT-EGD - Patna ] ] The aircraft broke into four pieces.

Investigation

The aircraft in question, VT-EGD, had been involved in an earlier accident. On January 15, 1986, the pilot of flight 529 attempted to land at Tiruchirapalli in conditions below weather minima. During a go-around the wing contacted the runway due to an excessive bank angle. The wing was substantially damaged, but there were no injuries among the 6 crew and 122 passengers. The aircraft was to be phased out by the end of the year as per an Indian government guidelines which do not allow aircraft beyond 20 years to operate in the skies. [ [http://www.rediff.com/news/2000/jul/17air20.htm rediff.com: Alliance Air Boeing 737 crashes near Patna ] ]

However, the final investigation noted pilot error as the cause of the plane crash [ http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/mar/31crash.htm. ] According to the panel, the crew had not followed the correct approach procedure which resulted in the aircraft being high on approach. The engines had been kept at idle thrust, which allowed the air speed to reduce to a lower than normally permissible value on approach and caused the aircraft to stall. The inquiry also pointed out that the airport had "several operational constraints, resulting in erosion of safety margins for operation of Airbus 320s and Boeing 737s."

Controversy

There were a number of aspersions cast on the maintenance of flights by Alliance Air, with the then civil aviation minister Sharad Yadav, reportedly unhappy with the maintenance of the aircraft [http://www.rediff.com/news/2000/jul/21crash2.htm rediff.com:Minister unhappy with Alliance Air maintenance ] ] and the minister asking for replacement of a number of aircraft. Some reports even claimed that one of the engines was on fire before the crash. [ [http://www.rediff.com/news/2000/jul/17air.htm rediff.com: Alliance Air Boeing 737 crashes near Patna ] ] However, the investigation clearly said the aircraft was fully airworthy and was properly maintained. [ [http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/mar/31crash.htm rediff.com: Patna crash blamed on pilot error ] ]

ee also

* List of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners grouped by year

References